Minnesota native Terrence Brown goes from no Division I offers to a top-10 scorer in the nation

Terrence Brown stood just 5-foot-3 as a Columbia Heights sophomore going up against Minnehaha Academy’s Jalen Suggs and Chet Holmgren in a 2020 Minnesota Class 3A section final.

Despite being small in stature for most of his high school career, Brown always had the confidence to compete with the big boys.

Now a foot taller, Brown returns home Saturday to play the Gophers with Fairleigh Dickinson. He’s ready to show how much he’s grown in more ways than one.

“As a team, we’re just coming in to show we belong and we’re fearless,” Brown told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Means everything to me to play in front of everybody I know and put the FDU jersey on back in my home state. I can’t wait for it.”

The 6-3, 175-pound sophomore carries the same undersized and overlooked mentality that helped him go from zero Division I offers as a high school senior to becoming one of the top scorers in college basketball in two years.

Entering Saturday, Brown’s averaging 22.1 points, which ranks eighth in Division I. He’s also averaging career-highs in field goal percentage (48.8%), three-point percentage (35.8%), rebounds (6.1), assists (3.0) and steals (2.1) per game.

“[FDU coaches] instill the confidence in us to be aggressive and not to turn down shots,” Brown said. “I put in work with my coaches. They stay up late and get up early to help me prepare, and that got me to where I’m at. That’s why I go out every single day and every single game with the confidence I have.”

Brown didn’t get recruited by the Gophers at Columbia Heights, but he certainly has their attention now, heading into Saturday’s matchup at Williams Arena.

“He’s a very good scorer,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. “Lot of credit to him. He’s worked on his game and it’s shown. He’s got good size, he’s got good length, he’s got a burst. He’s one of those dudes who figures out how to get open.”

Division I coaches didn’t see that type of impact player out of high school. That’s why Brown played a postgraduate season at Golden State Prep in Napa, Calif., in 2022.

Sharing the same facilities as Prolific Prep, Brown was allowed to train with the program that produced a number of NBA players, including Houston Rockets standout Jalen Green.

“With me growing so fast, there was a big change,” Brown said. “With me being smaller, I shot the ball different. As I was growing, my shot kept changing. Now, I’m at a point where I’m comfortable shooting the ball. It was really that [change] and my athleticism from getting in the weight room more frequently.”

Brown’s physical development made a difference at prep school when playing against top competition. He suddenly got looks and offers from several D-I schools, including Fairleigh Dickinson.

Having family on his father’s side 30 minutes away from the New Jersey school helped sell Brown on the Knights, who were giant killers the season before he got there when they upset Purdue in the 2023 NCAA tournament.

As a freshman in 2023-24, Brown averaged 7.8 points in about 22 minutes per game, but his biggest improvement came after starting 17 games.

Fairleigh Dickinson’s leading scorer last season, Ansley Almonor, transferred to Kentucky. So that meant a bigger role for Brown as a sophomore under second-year coach Jack Castleberry.

In Brown’s first season as a full-time starter, he has nine 20-point games, including 23 points vs. Nebraska. Dangerous off the dribble attacking the basket, he’s even better at knocking down shots from three-point range and getting teammates involved this season.

“Terrence Brown has had a massive jump,” Castleberry said after Brown scored 27 points vs. Villanova on Dec. 11. “The next step for him is playing with pace and spreading it out when he needs to when you draw that second defender.”

Brown’s team is trying to stay confident even after losing for the fifth time in six games after falling 77-72 at La Salle on Wednesday.

The Gophers are looking at Saturday as a bounce back opportunity after back-to-back losses against Michigan State and Indiana to start early Big Ten play, but they can’t afford to let Brown get going.

“If you don’t cover him well early and he builds confidence, he can keep them in games,” Johnson said. “He’s proven that.”

1 p.m. Saturday at Williams Arena

TV; radio: BTN; 100.3-FM

The Knights (4-9) have four losses against power conference opponents this season, having played Miami (Fla.), Creighton, Nebraska and Villanova. Minnesotan Terrence Brown leads the team in points, assists, rebounds and steals. But juniors Dylan Jones (12.0 points) and Jo’el Emanuel (11.0) also average in double figures. In the only other meeting, the Gophers beat FDU when current Gophers coach Ben Johnson scored 16 points as a player in 2002.